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October 1999

Are We Prioritising Properly Asks CARS

The swift and decisive actions announced by Government after the recent spate of bus accidents, has been welcomed by the Committee for Active Road Safety (CARS). "But," asks chairman Ian Auret, "has enough thought been put into the required actions and, most importantly, are we prioritising the problems correctly?"

Auret reckons that before embarking on costly investigations and processes, should we not look for ideas that are already in place and working with success in other spheres of the transport industry?

"Similarities with the air transport industry are particularly appropriate where passengers and freight are entrusted into the hands of a small number of people - and especially the pilot or driver," he says, adding that aircraft accidents have been minimised by paying special attention to pertinent issues such as:

  • Stringent qualifications for pilots.
  • Strict rules affecting their conduct, i.e. a ban on the use of any alcohol for a specified period before embarking on a flight and the policing of this requirement.
  • Strict rules for the duration of working shifts.
  • Support of co-pilots for backup duty.
  • Universal rules for the regular checking and servicing of aircraft and equipment.
  • A rigid test procedure before it is allowed to take-off.
  • Sophisticated training equipment such as simulators to test the ability of pilots and their responses in emergency situations.

"We suggest that an investigation into how we can apply similar rules and procedures to the bus and truck industry would be much more fruitful than investigating the causes of bus accidents and devising new ways of solving the problem. The causes are pretty evident."

Auret also advocates that the search for solutions should not be restricted to buses only. "Lets do an encompassing survey that includes all forms of vehicular and pedestrians road users and establish sensible and workable plans to minimise the total road usage problem that claims so many thousands of lives per year.

"Though injudicious speeding is a contributor to the problem, it is definitely not the biggest or major contributor to our problem. We need to give attention to road conditions, overloading of trucks, roadworthiness of vehicles, the training of drivers and also the size and the quality of the enforcement agencies. Only then will we really start making significant headway ridding society and our economy of this scourge," he says.

CARS is a committee that operates under the auspices of the South African Guild of Motoring Journalists and is made up of motoring broadcasters and journalists as well as representatives of key organisations involved in promoting better road usage.

The committee focuses on positively changing the attitude of road users towards safer road practices and also attempts to facilitate co-operation between the various bodies involved in this task.

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